07/29/1997 18:12 EST

Syria Still in Control of Lebanon

By G.G. LaBELLE
Associated Press Writer

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) -- A five-foot-high portrait of Hafez Assad sits on the ragged grass divider of Beirut's seafront boulevard, far from the Syrian president's own territory. ``Our leader forever,'' declares the accompanying Arabic script.

Belying Assad's authoritarian image, the painting depicts him a little like a kindly schoolmaster, with even a hint of humor in his eyes.

This genial Assad -- looming over Beirut drivers jockeying through traffic jams -- is among many not very subtle reminders scattered around Lebanon of Syria's control over its smaller, weaker neighbor.

Syria has kept tens of thousands of its soldiers in Lebanon going back 20 years. Today, perhaps a million Syrian workers live among -- some say spy on -- the 3.2 million Lebanese. Moreover, the crises that crop up regularly in Lebanon's politics get solved only through the intervention of the Syrians.

``They interfere in everything, small and big,'' says Sarkis Naoum, a columnist for the leading daily An-Nahar, describing the Syrian role in his homeland.

In private, Lebanese complain about Syria's hold on their country and their lack of real independence. Lebanese fans even shouted insulting remarks at Syria's soccer team at July's Arab Games. But few are publicly demanding that Syria immediately pull out its forces.

Part of it is fear of offending their stronger neighbor, known as ``sisterly Syria'' in the Arabic tradition. ``Big brotherly'' Syria would be more accurate.

However, attitudes toward Syria's presence also are wrapped up with the two countries' shared history, the Arab-Israeli conflict that still has Israel occupying 10 percent of Lebanon, and Lebanon's own devastating 15-year civil war.

Some Lebanese say the hatreds between Christians and Muslims that led to war in 1975 still exist and could erupt into new battles without the Syrians as overseers.

``We shouldn't forget where we were then and where we are now,'' Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri said in a recent interview, explaining that Syrian troops provide stability and must stay as long as Israel's occupation continues.

However, others argue Syria itself would foster new sectarian battles if its troops were forced to leave. Writing in An-Nahar, columnist Gibran Tueini questioned Hariri's belief that Christians and Muslims would go to war again without Syria dampening their differences.

``In your view, who will push them to fight each other?'' he asked.

There is no official figure on how many Syrian troops are in Lebanon, but it seems fewer than the 40,000 of several years ago. Some say it could be three-quarters that, or even half.

Syria's army entered Lebanon in 1976 to back the Christians in the civil war. Syria later backed the Muslim side and remains bitter -- and anxious -- about an alliance that right-wing Christians forged with its arch enemy, Israel.

Under the 1989 agreement that ended the civil war a year later, the Syrians should have been out of Beirut by 1993 and discussions should have been held with Lebanon on their withdrawing altogether.

But Syria's presence remains visible everywhere, from troops and armor concentrated in the North and East -- not far from Israeli forces in the South -- to soldiers running checkpoints along major highways and at entrances to cities.

Syrian soldiers monitor the Mediterranean coast from mountain posts and cruise the roads in civilian cars or white vans labeled simply ``al-jaish,'' Arabic for the army.

In Beirut, sentries keep watch over the Lebanese from roadside guardposts -- one sitting oddly next to a red and white Kentucky Fried Chicken outlet. Offices of Syrian Intelligence are tucked into ordinary streets. Throughout the city, posters picture Assad and his son Basil, who was the heir apparent to lead Syria until he died in a 1994 car crash.

Syria has tried to turn Basil into a martyred saint, and some Lebanese jokingly refer to a poster showing him, his father and younger brother Bashar as ``the father, son and holy ghost.''

Also plastered on roadside signs is a favorite slogan of Assad -- ``One people, two countries'' -- that recalls Lebanon was part of Syria until French mandate rulers turned it into a separate state in the 1920s. But the message seems to say, too, that Syria isn't planning to take back the land and its squabbling citizens.

Because of the countries' traditional ties, Syrian workers are able to flood across the border, taking menial jobs in farming, construction and street cleaning, earning far less than Lebanese wages but still twice what they'd get at home.

Authorities say the Syrians are not a problem since most do work that Lebanese would not take.

But one union official, who insisted on anonymity, said the Syrians may total over a million at peak periods, are a factor in Lebanon's 18 percent jobless rate and are spreading into new fields -- gas stations, restaurants, hotels and factories.

More than the presence of Syrian workers, Lebanese resent the control that Syria exercises over politics.

Hariri and Lebanon's other two main leaders, President Elias Hrawi and Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri, are all supported by the Syrians. But since the three frequently disagree, Syria steps in to settle arguments.

It's a pattern: with each squabble, one or another of the leaders travels across the Lebanese mountains to the Syrian capital Damascus to try to win Assad's backing for his side.

In his An-Nahar column, Gibran Tueini accused Hariri of running to Damascus ``whenever a dispute erupts,'' and reminded the prime minister that the civil war peace accord calls for ending Syria's armed presence.

But it's unlikely that Syrian forces will leave until Israel withdraws its troops since the bloody battles between Israelis troops and Shiite Muslim guerrillas in South Lebanon put pressure on Israel in overall Mideast peace talks.

Today, many Lebanese believe political realities dictate their country must have a special relationship with Syria -- even once Syrian forces withdraw.

Opposition legislator Nassib Lahoud, a Christian and former ambassador to Washington, said Lebanon must satisfy Syria's worries about Israel and about Lebanese religious strife bubbling into instability on the Syrian border.

``This is the most important problem we have to address -- reconciling our need for independence and sovereignty with the need for having privileged ties to Syria,'' he said. ``We should have better ties to Syria than to any country in the world.''

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